Chapter 1 - Wolf Lake State Park

On the last full day of my sister's visit, I wanted to take another hike. My ankles were painful, but I nevertheless suggested the Wolf Lake State Forest Loop. We left PeeWee at home, sleeping, and drove down to Edwards, New York:

The trail began gently uphill, but became increasingly rocky:

The dogs enjoyed the rocks, giving them something to climb and play on. For me, however, they were potential ankle twisters and I had to be very careful:

We climbed down a rocky hill, crossed a bridge made of a log sawed in half lengthwise, then across a field of rocks beside a beaver pond. The dogs were having the time of their lives even though I insisted they stay close to me, even putting them on leashes at times:

There were so many beaver ponds that I lost count, but they were lovely. This one had a large beaver lodge in its center:

And the evidence of beaver activity was easy to find:

I picked up one of the wood chunks at the base of the tree in the previous photo. It showed every tooth mark:

And then we continued on:

We came to another beaver dam, this one easily ten feet high. It was impressive and beautiful until I suggested imaging what it would be like if it suddenly gave way while we were standing below it. I guess I'm always the life of the party with such pleasant thoughts:

The beaver pond above the ten foot high dam was spectacular. Daphne walked over to take a look:

We walked along the rocky shores of more beaver ponds. The dogs ran and played and waded in the water:

I momentarily thought I saw cranberries, but a closer look (and also the habitat) informed me that I was seeing Teaberry. But we'd only just begun and had a lot of hiking ahead of us. I'll post Part 2 tomorrow:

The Canoe Carry Trail To The St. Regis River

Yes, indeed, if you thought that hiking up to the summit of Azure Mountain and then hiking along Quebec Brook was enough for one morning, you'd be wrong. There was one more short hike along Blue Mountain Road that I wanted to show my sister and niece. So we drove just a couple of miles from the Quebec Brook trail head to an unmarked canoe carry to the St. Regis River and began down the sandy, level trail:

I confess that I was tired and even this short, level trail felt long to me. But it was beautiful. We passed by this unnamed pond:

My sister searched the pond for ducks or loons but saw none:

We continued on. I reminded my sister how we'd pulled up Bracken Ferns in Oregon as kids and used them as spears as we played in the forest. This trail was lined with them:

We broke into a clearing with the St. Regis River just ahead of us:

And this was why I wanted to take this hike. The payoff was enormous - breathtaking, wild beauty:

Seamus walked right into the water but little Madeline thought that was crazy. She certainly wasn't going in:

Daphne, however, has learned that water can be lots of fun to play in:

No, I was not peeing in the river. I was holding up my pants' legs to keep them dry. I took off my shoes and waded into the river in an effort to convince the dogs to follow. As you can see, it didn't work very well. It felt wonderful, though, to be walking on such a sandy river bottom with cool, clean water washing my tired legs and feet:

The sandy shores were growing lots of Eastern Teaberry, also known as American Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens). Its little red berries had a friendly, inviting, homey look to them:

But all good things must come to an end, and we had to begin our hike back to the car:

We were all tired but had seen much exquisite natural beauty. We schlepped back to the car and went in search of lunch. We had to drive all the way to St. Regis Falls to find a convenience store, but they had great pizza and subs and hot wings. And our hiking for the day was done: